Dr Patty Baker, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies, has received funding for a public outreach project from the Institute of Classical Studies to teach Roman floristry techniques to florists and to the Canterbury Flower Club in February 2020.
Patty has also had her first artistic exhibition, entitled Roman ‘Floral Design: the Embodiment of Environmental Ephemerality’ accepted for the Antiquity and the Anthropocene Workshop, to be held at University College Dublin, next February. This project stems from a larger monograph on Roman gardens and health that is in the final stages of completion, and she has since began working on another one on Greco-Roman floristry.
The purpose of the events was to contribute to a developing sustainability movement in floristry today to ask what we can learn from the Romans about making environmentally friendly flower crowns and garlands. These events were well attended and brought brought a little-known area of Roman history and archaeology to the wider public.
Patty says, “These events promoted the development of sustainable floristry design practices today. Florists use tapes, wires and plastic based sundries to create their designs, which do not decompose. To move away from this, florists can learn something from historical design methods where biodegradable materials were used.”
Patty also wrote a blog which has further details about the events.